Oranges and Lemons is a worker placement game. Starting with just two workers, limited storage capacity and only able to transport what one person can carry the players must make the best they can of early 18th-century London, expanding their transport by acquiring first a hand cart, then a horse and cart and ultimately a ship, and by visiting locations mentioned in and activities inspired by the Oranges and Lemons nursery rhyme.

Here they can buy and sell goods such as lemons, pancakes, bricks and pans, get involved in the moneylending business, fulfil export contracts at the docks, try their hand at politics, invest in the early stock market or back risky but possibly lucrative expeditions to the East Indies. There are multiple routes to obtaining wealth and prestige. The winner will be the player who can best combine the available strategies to emerge as a Master of Commerce, with the city at their feet.

—description from their designer